UF and UVA Jobs Forum

[rmend]

What are some people's opinions on who would have better job prospects (biglaw) between:

UVA Top 50%
UF Top 20%, Law Review

I guess what I'm curious about is if doing something like law review and doing reasonably well at a school like UF gives you a better shot that being an average student at an elite school like UVA. Thanks for your help

[vanwinkle]

UF student would get crushed, UVA student would struggle a bit to find a job ITE but probably find something. HTH.

[Cavalier]

This isn't even close. You are much better off being an average student at a top ten law school than being on law review at UF. Even if the choice was top 5%, I'd still rather be average at any top ten school (well, maybe not Duke, but they don't belong in the top ten anyway).

[rmend]

This isn't even close. You are much better off being an average student at a top ten law school than being on law review at UF. Even if the choice was top 5%, I'd still rather be average at any top ten school (well, maybe not Duke, but they don't belong in the top ten anyway).

I assume you're a current student at UVA. So if you are average (40-50%) at a school like UVA, and don't make it onto a journal, what other things should you be doing to stand out to employers?

[vanwinkle]

I assume you're a current student at UVA. So if you are average (40-50%) at a school like UVA, and don't make it onto a journal, what other things should you be doing to stand out to employers?

There are lots of non-journal things you can do to put on your resume. Moot court, clinics, pro bono work, leadership of a campus organization... These are all things I'll be pursuing since I didn't make any journals.

[rmend]

I assume you're a current student at UVA. So if you are average (40-50%) at a school like UVA, and don't make it onto a journal, what other things should you be doing to stand out to employers?

There are lots of non-journal things you can do to put on your resume. Moot court, clinics, pro bono work, leadership of a campus organization... These are all things I'll be pursuing since I didn't make any journals.

That's great info, thanks. Also, what are your thoughts on the same Top 20%, law review at UF vs Top 40-50% at schools like Vandy or UCLA or Emory? Is it still such a no brainer? Thanks.

[Cavalier]

This isn't even close. You are much better off being an average student at a top ten law school than being on law review at UF. Even if the choice was top 5%, I'd still rather be average at any top ten school (well, maybe not Duke, but they don't belong in the top ten anyway).

I assume you're a current student at UVA. So if you are average (40-50%) at a school like UVA, and don't make it onto a journal, what other things should you be doing to stand out to employers?

Being on a secondary journal hardly matters; as long as you have something to put under the "University of Virginia School of Law" section on your resume you'll be OK. So, I would probably do Moot Court if I wasn't on a journal and had nothing else.

After that's taken care of, assuming median grades, getting a job is just a matter of (1) being socially competent, and (2) using interview bids wisely.

[vanwinkle]

That's great info, thanks. Also, what are your thoughts on the same Top 20%, law review at UF vs Top 40-50% at schools like Vandy or UCLA? Is it still such a no brainer? Thanks.

Law Review is not the big thing that everyone thinks it is, in many cases. In many cases LR is a good thing because it's a symbol you have either good grades or excellent writing skills, and that's useful for clerkships, academia, and incredibly competitive jobs. However, especially ITE, it seems like a lot of employers are focusing on grades, and don't care if you were on LR or not if you don't have the grades. They care about grades, and about prestige of degree, and those are the primary things many employers focus on.

My reason for pointing that out is that top 20% at a school like UF is probably not high enough for many things, LR or not. Employers will still rather take someone from a Vandy or UCLA. From what I've been seeing, even in the T20-30 range it's been pretty brutal finding jobs ITE, and folks in the top 20% at schools like ND and UIUC have not done well at all this year. I've also heard from folks at some low T1 and upper T2 schools that say even the top 5% folks there got shut out of BigLaw in their local markets.

I'm a big advocate of the "go to the best school you possibly can" strategy. If you do well there you'll be great. If you do mediocre there, well, you'll still do better than you would if you did mediocre at a lesser-ranked school.